Food drive to aid Little Brothers

October 30, 2012

HANCOCK - In The Daily Mining Gazette today, there are paper shopping bags for the collection of food products for the Little Brothers Friends of the Elderly annual food pantry collection. The agency hopes people will be generous with donations.

Cathy Aten, LBFE volunteer coordinator, said the food drive, which has been going on at least 18 years, was started by Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity at Michigan Technological University.

"They approached us and they wanted to do a service project," Aten said.

The bags of food will be collected Saturday by about 30 fraternity members, Aten said. It's part of a national effort by the fraternity, although not all locals do it on the same day.

Aten said fraternity members will be collecting from Houghton south to Chassell, Dodgeville, Painesdale and South Range, and from Hancock to the Bootjack area. They will collect from 9 a.m. to about 5 p.m.

"They are basically going to be out all day," she said.

The types of foods LBFE use the most, Aten said, are soups, stews, oatmeal, crackers, canned fruits, canned meats and peanut butter, but the collection isn't limited to those items.

"We're looking for any non-perishable food," she said.

Aten said bags of food should be placed on front porches or at front doors of houses, and in front of, or in the lobbies of apartment buildings.

If people don't get their bags out for collection on time, Aten said they can call LBFE at 482-6499 and someone will be sent to pick them up. Food can also be brought to the office at 527 Hancock St. in Hancock, also, and not just on Saturday.

"We take food donations all year long," she said.

Aten said last year, 7,178 pounds of food were collected for the LBFE food pantry. This year, the fraternity members are looking to increase that significantly.

"They've set a goal for themselves of 10,000 pounds," she said.

Currently, Aten said the LBFE is serving more than 70 people, and the annual food bag collection is important for stocking the LBFE food pantry.

"This food we get, we rely on all year to put in our monthly food bags," she said.